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Monday, May 4, 2009

The closer I got to the vampire bar, the more my pulse picked up. This was the downside to the blood bond I had with Eric Northman. I knew I was going to see him, and I was simply happy about it. I should have been worried, I should have been apprehensive about what he wanted, I should have asked a million questions about the velvet-wrapped bundle, but I just drove with a smile on my face.

Though I couldn't help how I felt, I could control my actions. Out of sheer perversity, since no one had told me to come around to the employees' entrance, I entered through the main door. It was a busy night at Fangtasia, and there was a waiting crowd on benches inside the first set of doors. Pam was at the podium. She smiled at me broadly, showing a little fang. (The crowd was delighted.)

I'd known Pam for a while now, and she was as close to a friend as I had among the vampires. Tonight the blonde vampire was wearing the obligatory filmy black dress, and she'd camped it up with a long, sheer black veil. Her white fingernails were polished scarlet.

"My friend," Pam said, came out from behind the podium to hug me. I was surprised but pleased, and gladly hugged her back. She'd spritzed on a little perfume to eclipse the faint, rather dry, smell of vampire. "Have you got it?" she whispered in my ear.

Pam gave me a look I couldn't interpret through the veil. It appeared to be an expression that compounded exasperation and affection. "You didn't even look inside?"

"I haven't had time," I said. It wasn't that I hadn't been curious. I simply hadn't had the leisure to think about it.

Pam gave me a long look of appraisal. "Go back to Eric's office and hand him the bundle," she said. "Leave it wrapped. No matter who's there. And don't handle it like it was a garden tool he'd left outside, either."

I gave her the look right back. "What am I doing, Pam?" I asked, jumping on the cautious train way too late.

"You're protecting your own skin," Pam said. "Never doubt it. Now go." She gave me a get-along pat on the back, and turned to answer a tourist's question about how often vampires needed to get their teeth cleaned.

"Would you like to come very close and look at mine?" Pam asked in a sultry voice, and the woman shrieked with delighted fear. That was why the humans come to vampire bars, and vampire comedy clubs, and vampire dry cleaners, and vampire casinos . . . to flirt with danger.

Every now and then, flirtation becomes the real thing.

I made my way between the tables and across the dance floor to the rear of the bar. Felicia, the bartender, looked unhappy when she saw me. She found something to do that involved crouching down out of my sight. I had an unfortunate history with the bartenders of Fantasia.

There were a few vampires seated throughout the bar area, strewn among the gawking tourists, the costumed vampire wannabes, and humans who had business dealings with the vamps. Over in the little souvenir shop, one of the New Orleans vampire refugees from Katrina was selling a Fangtasia T shirt to a pair of giggling girls.

I walked through the bar and knocked on Eric's door. I heard his voice inside, telling me to come in. I stepped inside and shut the door behind me. "Hi, Eric," I said, and was almost rendered mute by the surge of happiness that swept through me whenever I saw him. His long blond hair was braided tonight, and he was wearing his favorite jeans-and-a-T combo. The T shirt tonight was bright green, making him look whiter than ever.

The wave of delight wasn't necessarily related to Eric's gorgeousness or the fact that we'd bumped pelvises, though. The blood bond was responsible, and I had to fight the feeling.

Maybe.

Victor Madden, representative of the new vampire king, Felipe de Castro, stood and inclined his curly dark head. Victor, short and compact, was always polite and always well-dressed. This evening he was especially resplendent in an olive suit and brown striped tie. I smiled at him and was about to tell him I was glad to see him again when I noticed that Eric was eyeing me expectantly. Oh, right.

I shucked off my coat and extracted the velvet bundle from my purse. I dropped the purse and coat in an empty chair, and walked over to Eric's desk with the bundle extended in both hands. This was making as much of the moment as I could, short of getting on my knees and crawling over to Eric, which I would do when hell froze over.

I laid the bundle in front of him, inclined my own head in what I hoped was a ceremonious manner, and sat down in the other guest chair.

"What has our fair-haired friend brought you, Eric?" Victor asked, in the cheerful voice that he affected most of the time. Maybe he was actually that happy, or maybe his mama had taught him (a few centuries ago) that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

With a certain sense of theater, Eric silently unfolded the velvet. Sparkling like a jewel on the dark material was the ceremonial knife I'd last seen in the city of Rhodes. Eric had used it when he officiated at the marriage of two vampire kings, and he'd used it to nick himself later when he'd taken blood from me and given me blood in return; our third exchange, the one that (from my point of view) had caused all the trouble.

After Victor recognized the knife, there was no trace of a smile remaining on his face. He and Eric regarded each other steadily.

"Very interesting," Victor said finally.

Once again, I had that feeling of drowning when I hadn't even known I was in the pool. I started to speak, but I could feel Eric's will pressing on me, urging me to be silent. In vampire matters, it was smart to take Eric's advice.

The author releases her latest book in the bestselling Sookie Stackhouse vampire series -- the inspiration behind HBO's hit show, 'True Blood'

In Charlaine Harris's new novel, "Dead and Gone," she again puts her good-natured, telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse in harm's way. That's saying a lot in a town where vampires, werewolves and other suspicious characters drink together at the same bar.

Charlaine Harris

Vampires, at least those imagined by such writers as Stephenie Meyer, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Anne Rice, have emerged as one of the most popular genres in American fiction in recent years. Ms. Harris's Southern Gothic Sookie Stackhouse books have also been big sellers, boosted by the HBO series "True Blood" that debuted at last fall and had an average viewership of 2 million, according to Nielsen Co. A second season, which again stars Anna Paquin, is scheduled to start June 14. The show was created by Alan Ball, who wrote the screenplay for "American Beauty" and later served as executive producer for HBO's "Six Feet Under."

Ace Books, an imprint of Pearson Plc's Penguin Group (USA), says it has issued 400,000 copies of "Dead and Gone" -- and that there are more than 8 million copies of the nine-book Sookie Stackhouse series in print.

Ms. Harris, 57 years old, has written nearly 30 novels, including three other mystery series. She lives in Magnolia, Ark., where she says there aren't any supernatural creatures "that I know of."

The Wall Street Journal:What accounts for the fascination with vampires in this country?

Charlaine Harris: America is obsessed with youth. We all want to look young forever, and vampires do. They are caught in their prime, if that's when they've been turned. And they'll be that way forever.

WSJ:How did the HBO "True Blood" series come about?

Ms. Harris: Somebody had an earlier option on the Sookie books, but it didn't come to anything. Most writers go through this once or twice in their careers. When that option expired, I had three more offers. One was from Alan Ball, who convinced me that he understood what I was doing with the books. If I wanted the spirits of the books represented as I'd written them, he said, his was the offer I should take. And I've been so happy with the choices he has made.

Because apparently people can never get enough of post-apocalyptic thrillers ("Hey honey, what do you want to see tonight?" "Something where everything we know and love has been horrifically destroyed!"), Ray Stevenson, Jaime King, Stephen Moyer, Robert Duvall, and James Caan are all coming on board for "Tribes of October", directed and produced by Phillipe Martinez.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "October" is set in a future in which New York has become surrounded by an endless desert plagued by heat storms, and the city's technology is such that nothing made after 1960 works any more (wait—what?). In this environment, a detective (Stevenson) goes after a Mafia don (Caan) who is going after the remnants of the NYPD, led by Duvall. The detective is simultaneously searching for the love of his life (King). Moyer plays a cynical and street-smart detective.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Ray Stevenson, Jaime King and Stephen Moyer, along with Robert Duvall and James Caan, are starring in the postapocalyptic thriller "Tribes of October" from director Philippe Martinez.

"October" is set in a future in which New York has become surrounded by an endless desert plagued by heat storms, and the city's technology is such that nothing made after 1960 works anymore. In this environment, a detective (Stevenson) goes after a Mafia don (Caan) who in turn is going after the remnants of the NYPD, led by Duvall. The detective is also searching for the love of his life (King). Moyer plays a cynical, street-smart detective.

Nick Vallelonga and Paul Sloan wrote the screenplay.

The production, budgeted at $25 million, is eyeing a summer start in Michigan, where Martinez directed his thriller "The Chaos Experiment." "October" will be shot using greenscreen.

Stevenson starred in "Punisher: War Zone" as well as HBO's "Rome" series. He recently finished shooting "The Book of Eli" with Denzel Washington and "Cirque du Freak" for director Paul Weitz.

For Duvall and Caan, who are in final negotiations, the project marks the first time the two veteran actors will work together since 1972's "The Godfather." Duvall next appears with Viggo Mortensen in the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," while Caan appears in Brett Ratner's segment of "New York, I Love You."

Meredith at io9.com made me laugh with her post about the new True Blood / Dylan promo..

The latest True Blood promo spot is out, with all our favorite characters doing what they do best: getting naked and rolling around in blood. Watch the cast jump and jive to Bob Dylan.

Check it out: Eric got a hair cut. He's looking good with that short hairdo. I'm very antsy to see what happens with Alexander Skarsgård this season, as I think he was undercut a little last year, with tiny t-shirts and the likes. But this?

This is lookin' both dangerous and hot. I'm also glad to see Jason on his knees, probably foreshadowing his big religious storyline for the season. Heck, its just good to have everyone back — we missed you, TB, and all your sexy blood play. The new season will start in June 14th.